Author name: highlandnews

Almost 900 thousand people were put at risk because of two serious failures at Irish Water plants. The utility has been strongly criticised in a new report from the Environmental Protection Agency over the incidents at Ballymore Eustace in Kildare and Gorey in Co. Wexford last year. There were ‘significant failings in oversight by management’

Donegal County Council’s Waste Awareness Officer has confirmed that inspections will be carried out when new solid fuel regulations come into force at the end of this month. The aim of the new regulations is to take the most polluting solid fuels off the market. Products for use must have an approved label on it

Farmers in Donegal are struggling to keep afloat. That was one of the issues high on the agenda at this week’s meeting of Donegal County Council’s Agriculture Committee. The meeting heard concerns from farmers over the cost of living and how in order to keep afloat, an increase in product price is necessary. While some

The sale of Castlederg Police Station has been delayed. Concerns were raised earlier this week as the North’s Policing Board was set to decide on a proposal to sell the former station. However, social housing agency APEX which had been working with Derry City and Strabane District Council to secure the property were ruled out

The Tanaiste has been accused of failing in his term in Government in tackling homelessness. Donegal Deputy Pearse Doherty also pressed Leo Varadkar in the Dail this afternoon on the prospect of electricity blackouts over the coming months. In response to Deputy Doherty, the Tanaiste says the Government is doing what it can to address

Up to 150 asylum seekers are to be moved into a block of apartments in Ballybofey. The Department of Immigration say contracts have been signed and families seeking international protection will move in in the coming weeks. The forty-eight apartments had been laying derelict in Ballybofey for a number of years. Donegal Deputy Thomas Pringle

A new Mica Action Group committee has been elected with Lisa Hone being named as the new Chairperson. Every member of the MAG Committee is either directly affected, or has family affected by the defective block crisis, some both. Lisa Hone takes over the role of Chairperson from Eamon Jackson as the leader of the

Overcrowding, delays and cancelled operations are going to be ongoing factors at the hospital for a some time to come. That’s according to General Manager of Letterkenny University Hospital Sean Murphy. Attendances at the Emergency Department are at an all time high with over 100 people attending daily over the past few months, with 200

A Donegal Irish dancer says he is not surprised by the results fixing allegations as this has been going on for years. Judges in Irish dancing have been accused of fixing the results of competitions. The allegations have been made within the C-L-R-G body, with one dancing teacher reportedly offering sexual favours for higher scores.

Work on the long awaited A5 road is set to get underway late next year. Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd has confirmed that the A5 Western Transport Corridor Scheme will get underway late next year – starting from Derry to Strabane – with the view of completing it by 2028. The A5 upgrade, which was announced

Progress on the masterplan for Milford has been welcomed as a positive first step towards the future of the town. Last year, €100,000 was provided for a plan to tackle dereliction and revitalise the town centre, with the lead to be taken by Donegal County Council. The first meeting to progress the Town Centre First

Food supply and security across the world is at risk unless measures are taken to reduce the price of fertilisers. The issue is set to go before the European Parliament today as farmers across the continent have seen costs jump threefold since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. The European Commission is being called

Almost 110-thousand hospital appointments have been cancelled this year. According to Freedom of Information figures, it includes nearly 14-thousand at the Mater Hospital in Dublin. The HSE says there are many reasons why hospitals cancel appointments, such as a Covid surge, or a lack of beds. Donegal GP Ciarán Ó Fearraigh says the health service

Talks on the Northern Ireland Protocol and other Brexit related issues are set to get underway today. Negotiators from the EU and UK are expected to meet for the first time since February for technical talks. It comes after a thawing of relations between Ireland and Britain with Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney set to

A Donegal Deputy says the county is ‘at the heart’ of his call for free, accessible public transport. Deputy Thomas Pringle brought a motion before the Dail this week which he called ‘a social justice policy’, highlighting the lack of public transport in rural parts of the country. The Dail was told that people in

The Taoiseach has committed to raise the ongoing delays in the delivery of a new building for Scoil Íosagain in Buncrana with the Education Minister. It’s emerged that the planning permission for the development has now expired which will result in further set backs in terms of time and cost. The school is the largest

The Government needs to petition the European Commission to relax State-aid rules to help regional airports like Donegal and Knock to develop and expand. That’s the call from Midlands North West MEP Chris MacManus. He was speaking in the European Parliament where MEPs are voting this week on whether to keep some pandemic-era exceptions for

An emergency medical consultant at Altnegelvin Hospital says the Emergency Department is in dire straits. Yesterday, 110 people were in the ED with 45 awaiting admission while 4 ambulances were backed up awaiting to offload patients. In a social media post, Emergency Medical Consultant, Sandy Nelson appealed to people to do anything to help ease

The HSE has confirmed it’s investigating three confirmed cases of bacterial meningitis – two of which were fatal. One more report is not confirmed, but has been classed as a ‘possible’ case of the disease. Three of the patients are young adults and the other is a child under 10 years old – all are

A Donegal woman was forced to wait 17 hours on a flight home from her holiday due to ongoing issues at Ryanair. Lynn McDevitt explained her flight home from Malaga to Dublin on Monday with Ryanair was delayed by 17 hours. Her flight was booked for 7.30am but due to staff shortages and an ongoing

The final cost of the new National Children’s Hospital may not be known for years, according to the head of its development board. The majority of the 1.4 billion euro budget has already been spent and the final cost is expected to go beyond that. The project is running 17 months behind its original schedule

A defective blocks homeowner who says it looks like her house is built with gravel and dust has appealed for the Council to speed up the scheme application process. Sharon from Inishowen says the bricks at her back door are crumbling, plaster is coming off the walls and every room has mold. Her son spent

A 23-year-old from County Meath has been killed on the front-line in Ukraine. Rory Mason enlisted in the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine at the outset of the war last March. The Mason family learnt of his death in Kharkiv last Wednesday from the Department of Foreign Affairs, and are currently in the

Vandalism at the new greenway in Muff has been branded as ‘an act of mindless wanton destruction.’ Eight bilingual signposts, which described the species of plants and trees planted along the route, were pulled from the ground and left damaged. The incident is believed to have occurred on Sunday night. The signposts had been put

A Donegal Deputy has hit out at the government for failing to hold anyone responsible for the concrete blocks scandal as he raised issued surrounding banks and quarries. Speaking in the Dail last night during a motion calling for the ten percent concrete levy to be scrapped, Deputy Padraig Mac Lochlainn says many quarries are

A Donegal Deputy says he has been inundated with calls from people who are close to the income threshold for social housing who are concerned they are going to be kicked off the list. Deputy Thomas Pringle raised the issue in the Dail during a debate about the Housing for All plan which he claims

The Government has been accused of raising the cost of building new homes. Sinn Féin has called for the new concrete block levy introduced in the budget to be scrapped. Leader Mary Lou McDonald says the real cost of the levy is just going to be passed on to people who are struggling to buy

More than 33,000 people living in Donegal continue to regularly flush wipes and other sanitary items down the toilet despite warnings. A recent survey as part of the Irish Water and Clean Coasts ‘Think Before You Flush’ campaign has revealed that those aged under 35 are twice as likely to dispose of ‘flushable’ wipes down

Anti-social behaviour orders go hand in hand with increased community policing, according to the Justice Minister. She’s asked the Garda Commissioner to examine their effectiveness and how to improve the use of orders. The crackdown is in light of recent antisocial instances, including the car ramming incident in Cherry Orchard in Dublin last month. Brendan